


Wild Dragon Chase

by capitalnineteen, Tangerine_Catnip



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blupjeans AU Boogaloo 2019, Crystal Dragon Barry, Dragons, F/M, Pining, Secret Identity, Two Person Love Triangle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 14:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18412088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capitalnineteen/pseuds/capitalnineteen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangerine_Catnip/pseuds/Tangerine_Catnip
Summary: Having spotted the same distinctive looking dragon several times and in several different planar systems, Lup is ready to force a meeting. A dragon on their side against the Hunger would be a tremendous advantage.Barry Bluejeans has kept his true nature a secret for half a millennia. He’s been alone since the rest of his flight died trying to defend the town they were the protectors of. That’s a difficult life for a crystal dragon who hoards sentimental and emotional bonds the way other flights hoard gold or relics. Can he risk his secret when half the crew despise dragons?





	Wild Dragon Chase

Lup took a large bite from her sandwich and lifted the binoculars back to her eyes.

She studied the vast landscape below them as she chewed. Climbing up to the cliff-face had taken all morning, but a high vantage point was necessary to see anything in a forest this thick.

Lup put her sandwich down and took a long pull from a flask of water before passing it to Barry.

“I don’t see any good nesting spots… they might have moved on already.”

She frowned and kicked a small pebble over the side of the cliff. It bounced over the side and flew away, vanishing in the leafy canopy below.

“Shit.”

Lup peered out through the binoculars again, studying every lake and stream to make sure it wasn’t secretly a moving patch of cyan crystal.

“I swear, this dragon must turn invisible. I saw it right here yesterday… Or maybe it’s just having a holiday in the next plane over, seeing as it can fly through the planar barrier anyway.”

Lup set the binoculars down in her lap and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Do you think we should try to set a trap? I could be the bait. I know they usually prefer virgins but like, how would it ever know? It’s a huge fucking lizard.”

Barry groaned at the suggestion. Why did mortals always think dragons were looking for a vestal maiden? He’d love to strangle whoever started that idea.

“What do you think you need to do? Tie yourself to a rock or something? You’re not Princess Drusilla,” he said. Gods, that book series had gone on forever. It had stirred up dragon hatred for decades.

“I could be if I wanted…” Lup muttered.

Lup sighed dramatically and let herself topple backwards to land in a pile of leaves.

For the thousandth time that day, Barry cursed himself for getting caught _again._ He’d tried so hard to be careful since she’d seen him that first time but it kept happening. Now he'd not just been seen in his dragon form, he’d been recruited to search for himself.

But a dragon had to eat, after all. Even though almost all his time was spent in his human form, he still had to eat to satisfy his dragon form a few times a year. He couldn’t request the twins whip up a batch of metal ore for him to snack on. Even if he could, human teeth and digestive systems weren’t built for it. There was nothing to do but try to sneak away and try to fill his belly with whatever precious minerals he could get his claws on.

It would have been helpful if he’d managed to do that shortly before launch, but he’d been too busy with everything else involved in preparing for their mission. There hadn’t been an opportunity to get away in the months leading up to the launch so every cycle he started off hungry.

He’d thought he’d be able to kill two birds with one stone. Merle was supposed to be on watch for the light. With his shorter legs, Merle never would have climbed this far up to track the light. Barry thought he’d be safe to go dragon so he could both eat and search for the light.

Instead, it was Lup who went on watch, and there he was, soaring above the tree line obvious as… well, as obvious as a big fucking shiny dragon.

He hadn’t even found the damn light.

Maybe he should go dragon and scare her. Let her barely escape.

…Yeah, there was a great plan. Reinforce how awful dragons are _and_ get the rest of the crew to band together and hunt him. That would be terrific. Not to mention the impossibility of him trying to terrorise Lup.

So maybe he should do the opposite. Give her a little meeting. Maybe if she finally met the dragon, it would satisfy her curiosity, and she’d lose interest?

Well, he had to do something or they’d probably be up here every day for the rest of the cycle.

“I wish someone had brought some books about dragons, or something,” Lup said. “I hate having no idea what type it is. It doesn’t look chromatic, but it’s definitely not metallic, and none of those should be able to fly between the planar systems.”

Lup took another bite of her sandwich and chewed pensively.

“You believe me, right, bear?”

A golden leaf landed near his foot, and Barry picked it up, twirling it in circles by its stem.

He was quiet as he considered her question. He didn’t want to encourage her, but he couldn’t lie to her either. He wished he could just _tell_ the crew and stop this awful secrecy. He’d never been as close with mortals before this. Now he truly cared about these six people, lying to them was terrible.

But every time he built his nerve up to tell them, something stopped him. Like Merle’s insistence that “Ya can’t trust a damn dragon. They’ll eat ya as soon as look at ya.” Or even just Lucretia mildly pointing out there were no records of dragons actually being helpful without getting something in return, that even the friendliest dragon flights couldn’t truly be called allies because they didn’t participate in trade or peace agreements. Or Davenport’s recitation of every dragon vs mortals’ skirmish in recorded history. (The ones marked by mortals, anyway.)

Barry sighed. “Yeah, Lup, I believe you.”

He tossed the leaf over the cliffside and watched it arc and spin as it fell, catching on the breeze. It made him itch to fly even though it had only been a day since he’d been in the air.

Well. He really had to do something. He wrapped the untouched sandwich she’d given him back up and stowed it in the pack. This whole outing had him too anxious to eat.

“I’m going to go back and try that other trail we passed. Maybe I can find a different vantage point.” He glanced at her lying in the leaves, surrounded by colour. “Besides, I’m probably ruining your ‘Princess Drusilla’ vibe. Maybe my absence will help,” he joked, trying to appease her. He took a drink then dropped the water flask by the pack as well.

Squaring his shoulders, he tried to convince himself this was the best plan instead of just the only one he could come up with. “Good luck,” he told her and moved back to follow the path they’d taken.

“Uh, okay.” Lup watched him go, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

“Be careful!” She called after him, but when she heard the waver in her tone she quickly added, “If the captain hears I got you killed chasing dragons he’s going to be really mad at me!”

Barry called back an “Okay!” as he hurried down the path they’d taken. The climb down was easier than the climb up had been, but both would have been easier with his wings. He couldn’t risk it yet, though.

The last thing he wanted was for her to think he’d been eaten by a dragon.

No, the last thing he wanted was for her to realise he _was_ a dragon.

Lup sighed and pulled her knees up to her chest. She knew finding the dragon would be a long shot, and she’d been hoping to spend a lovely afternoon out with Barry at least. Ever since she had announced her plan and insisted he come with her, though, Barry had been quiet and withdrawn.

He said he believed her, so maybe he was scared and didn’t want it to show? Only, he seemed more sullen than worried.

“This would be so much easier if you just talked to me…” Lup muttered. She wasn’t one to judge, though. She also had a bad habit of not talking to anyone when things were bothering her.

\---

Barry crashed gracelessly to the ledge below. What he wanted was to run to the edge and drop his illusion, take to the air, feel the breeze buffeting against his wings. But he was wearing real clothes and real glasses that he’d need later.

Feeling ridiculous, Barry shucked out of his clothes. He checked over his shoulder, looking back towards the path. He didn’t think Lup would abandon her prime dragon spotting location to follow him, but he certainly didn’t want her catching him ditching his clothes if she did. Or rather, he didn’t want her to find him having already ditched them. Once his clothes were off, he bundled everything together, securing his glasses carefully in his shirt pocket.

Then he moved back into the clearing, tucked the sleeve trailing from his clothing bundle between his teeth, and dropped his human illusion. The stocky, middle-aged, naked human man was gone.

In his place was a dragon.

To mortals, Barry’s human form was about as average and forgettable as could be conceived. As a dragon, he was a lot more unusual. Very few crystal dragons had ever existed, and far fewer of them had been seen. In the dappled light of the clearing, his scales were crystal blue, slightly translucent upon close enough viewing. His head was large with deep blue angular horns pointing up and back. Enormous eyes of piercing crystal blue were centred with slit-like pupils to see in a massive range of light levels.

As a dragon, he was glorious.

Delicately clenching his clothes in teeth that were now pointed and ferocious, he flapped his massive wings. No matter how long or short it had been, every time he dropped his transformation and spread his wings, it felt sublime. As he rose, he stretched his neck and dropped his bundle of clothes in a tree where it wouldn’t be visible from the ground, just in case one of the crew came by.

Now that he was in his true form again, Barry felt better about the plan. If nothing else, it would be fun to finally talk to someone as a dragon. The anxiety and worry that made up so much of his being when he was a human felt remote as he pumped his wings and rose above the tree line.

In the full sun, his scales seemed to glow with a flash of dazzling brilliance. His mouth pulled into a wide reptilian grin. Wait until Lup got a good look at him now.

Lup sensed it before she heard it. A disturbance in the very fabric of the universe itself.

She scrambled to her feet and ran up to the edge of the cliff just in time to hear the tremendous whoosh of air as a thirty-foot-long lizard propelled itself through the air as if it were water.

“Holy shit!”

Being back in his dragon form? Flying? That was wonderful. But showing off for Lup made it so much better. He hadn’t had the opportunity to perform for another in centuries, almost since he was a whelpling doing loops for his mother.

The cautious, worried part deep inside reminded him to enjoy the sensation while it lasted because this couldn’t be a regular occurrence. But his joy could not be diminished at the moment. He could _feel_ her attention on him. He gleamed brighter under her notice.

The dragon rose up higher and backflipped in the air, navigating the complicated aerial manoeuvre with ease. Lup watched with her mouth hanging open until she remembered that she needed to do something to get the dragon’s attention. Standing around being dumbstruck was what had cost her the last few opportunities to get the dragon’s attention.

“Hey! Hey, big scaly thing! Over here!”

Lup tried shouting, but she could hardly even hear herself over the air currents coming off the dragon. She glanced around her for something to throw before she remembered she had magic and summoned up a Scorching Ray. She aimed it towards the sky and let loose, sending the pillar of energy shooting up into the air like a flare.

A ripple of magic trilled in his awareness and he whipped his head to look in her direction. A flash of that inner worry feared that she was attacking him, but of course not. Even his anxious human self knew better. Lup might be impulsive, but she hadn’t gone to all this trouble to shoot at him.

Aimed in her direction, he flapped his mighty wings and held his position as he considered her. She was magnificent - standing on the cliff’s edge with her feet spread and arm raised, light and energy flowing up through her in a column of brilliant magic. When her spell ended, he held a moment longer then aimed his head up and breathed his own flare of light in response.

Lup saw the dragon raise its head, open massive jaws full of teeth that looked more like gemstone shards and let lose a thunderous pillar of white light that tore a hole in the clouds and drowned out the sun itself.

She shielded her eyes, blinking rapidly to clear the spots from her vision. When she looked up again, the massive beast was coming in for a landing. She gasped and backed toward the tree line, almost tripping over a stone because she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the dragon.

A shiver passed through Barry’s whole body. He was unaccustomed to such unrestrained joy and freedom. Approaching the cliff slowly, he tried to give her time to react and move back so he could land. When he touched down, he spread his wings, stretching them high and wide before settling them against his body.

The ground shook when he landed, and Lup almost lost her balance again. She braced herself against a boulder, hanging on to it to survive the gust of wind as his wings folded. Once he had settled, Lup straightened up to face him.

Nodding his head once in greeting, he offered her the first words he’d spoken as a dragon since the last of his flight had died.

“Hello, little bright one.”

Lup swallowed and risked another step forward. He was big enough to swallow her in one go… but that would put her on the leaderboard for coolest death and confirm that the dragon was to be avoided.

“Uh…. Hey! Glad you noticed my signal! I've been trying to get a chance to talk to you for a few years, and uh… across a few different universes, actually. You can call me Lup.”

Lup offered her hand to the dragon, realising a second later that his paw was the size of her whole torso. She glanced nervously at her arm and then to him, not sure if she should take it back or not.

Barry tried to hold his mouth steady. As a dragon, brandishing his teeth in a grin would look menacing. He blinked at her calmly then slowly stretched out his neck and gently touched his snout to her outstretched hand.

Lup shivered when his smooth scales touched her hand. He was warm, bordering on hot, so that ruled out him being a flavour of ice or storm dragon.

“Lup,” he said as he pulled his head back. Her name felt different in his mouth as a dragon. His eyes widened as he realised he needed to give her a name in response. He _could_ avoid giving one - many dragons were secretive about their names - but he saw no real point. All the dragon flights of their homeworld were gone now. His draconic name no longer held any power.

Another long disused piece of his past came forward. “You may call me Sildar,” he offered. No one had called him that in centuries but offering it to her felt right.

“You are with the silver ship,” he said. He might as well let them know he was aware of them, too. “It is beautiful,” he added because it was. “Your people are very clever to build such a thing.” The statement was a joke, a compliment to himself as one of those who’d built it.

He stretched his neck up and tilted his head to the side as if considering. “Bond magic harnessed in an engine. Very clever indeed.” That was what had attracted him to the project, of course.

“You know about us then? Cool, I was worried I’d have to explain it, cuz honestly, I don’t even know where to start.”

Lup shifted from foot to foot. Then she realised that if he knew about the ship, he must also know they could use it travel between planar systems.

“Us beings without wings need something to travel through space with. We can’t all do... whatever you do…”

Lup had never seen what the dragon did to get from one plane to the other. Once, when the Starblaster had been taking off at the end of a cycle, she’d caught a glimpse of Sildar down on the ground fighting the Hunger’s minions and using his light breath to banish the dark pillars pulling the material plane into its amorphous jaws. She’d yelled at Cap’n’port to stick around to see if he managed to fight it off, but he’d insisted it was too risky.

She’d been worried that he had been overwhelmed and killed, but luckily, she’d seen him again early the next cycle.

“Are you also running from the Hunger?” Lup shook her head, remembering that only the ship and crew called it that. “I mean the black mass that eats the worlds. Are you flying between planes to escape it?’

“The Hunger,” he said, his voice a low growl. “That is a good name for it. When it comes to a plane… there is nothing left behind.”

He didn’t expand on his answer. He was flying between planes to escape it, of course. But usually, he was just a few feet away from her when that happened. For all that his dragon wings could do, leaving the planar system wasn’t one of his flying skills.

He smiled as he remembered fighting the Hunger in his dragon form and the sight of his grin was as menacing as he’d worried it would be. “But it doesn’t like my light breath,” he told her proudly. If she knew he was also fighting the Hunger, maybe that would calm the captain’s worries a bit.

His head drooped as he added. “If there were more of my kind, we might be able to make a stand against it.”

“So, there aren’t any more of you?”

Lup bit her bottom lip. Some small part of her had been imagining a dragon army bearing down on the Hunger and fighting back its darkness with their light. It only made sense though, if there were more where Sildar had come from, she probably would have seen them by now.

Barry blinked, realising what he’d admitted. He didn’t want Davenport hunting him down as a solitary threat, even if that idea was impossible.

“What happened to the others? Did the Hunger..?” Lup cut herself off, she didn’t have any business knowing that.

“No, little bright one. The Hunger did not end them. It has been so for a very long time. My flight had always been small and they… they died out. I have been the last of my kind for a very long time.”

He curled up, making himself as small and nonthreatening as possible. His tail had been hanging over the cliff’s edge, but now he tucked it around himself, his head lying on his paws, eyes now at the same level as hers. He regarded her with wide, bright eyes, already dreading the moment he would have to leave and return to his human form.

Lup yelped and stumbled back, reacting instinctually to having the jaws of a large predator so close to her. Then she saw his passive posture, and she flipped to moving closer to him.

She reached out her hand and pressed it to the top of his long snout. She ran it up his scales. They looked so much like rock, but they were smoother than silk to the touch. Lup bit her lip, fighting the urge to wrap her arms around his head and bask in his body warmth.

She took her hand back quickly, aware that she should have asked before touching him.

When she startled, he felt terrible. Even reminding himself to move slowly couldn’t take away all the alarm when he was so much larger than her. But she was Lup and recovered quickly. He closed his eyes and focused on the sensation of her touch. It was unlike anything he could have imagined. And coupled with the trust she showed to be so close and reach out so near his mouth? Nothing could be more beautiful on this bright autumn day.

He opened his eyes again as she took back her hand. This meeting needed to be a one-time thing but… would it really be so bad to speak with her sometimes? Maybe eventually they could convince the rest of the crew he didn’t mean them harm?

“Are the rest of your people like you?” he asked as he considered the idea.

“Uhhh, well, I think a few of them are a little scared of you, Davenport and Lucretia… Merle too, I think, though he pretends not to be. We weren’t really expecting the Hunger to y’know, eat up the whole world, and I think it’s putting everyone a little on edge. Magnus thinks you’re cool, though! Mostly because he wants to fight you, but I think he would settle for a friendly spar if you’d be into that. Taako will take my word about you and Barry…”

Lup’s eyes went wide, and she twisted around to look down the path Barry had left down.

“Shit. Shiiiiiiiit!” Lup ran to the mouth of the trail and cupped her hands over her mouth. “Barry! Barry come back! The dragon’s here!”

She listened carefully, but she couldn’t hear even a snapping of twigs in the underbrush. Barry was long gone.

“Damn it, he was just here.”

Barry watched as she ran to where his human form had gone, calling for him. He felt a twinge of jealousy that she was so intent on sharing this moment with someone else, even though ‘someone else’ was also him.

Lup returned to the cliff, arms crossed over her chest.

“Fuck, you just missed him. Barry would have found you fascinating.”

Thinking about Barry reminded Lup why she had been so keen to go dragon hunting with him. They were the only two crew members who spoke draconic. Lup slipped into the hissing accent favoured by the ancient lizards and said, “Yth trian renthisj dout xanalre.” (We both speak your language.)

Hearing his language from Lup’s mouth, Barry’s dragon eyes went enormous, and he hissed a wordless noise of shock. His wings stood up from his body, and his tail moved back to wave over the edge of the cliff.

“You… you speak draconic?” he said. Draconic was a difficult language, and there had been few translations and even fewer teachers on their homeworld. He’d never imagined…

How many times had he mumbled under his breath some curse or exclamation in draconic around her? How many things had she heard him say about…?

Barry drew a slow breath. It must not have been too bad if she’d never confronted him on it, had brought him here expecting to converse in draconic with the dragon.

“Wux re gliiwr di irthosi, moxt itmen ir.” (You are full of secrets, little bright one.)

Lup couldn’t help a huge grin crossing her face at his reaction. She was hoping her skill would impress him. Even when learning it she’d been hoping to try it on a real dragon one day.

“Well. I am sorry to have missed your friend,” he told her. Human Barry wouldn’t be speaking to a dragon anytime soon, that was certain. “But speaking one on one is easier,” he added. “After all, there are several of you and only one of me. Maybe you can be their spokesperson?”

“Sure! If that’s what works for you,” Lup agreed. She wasn’t sure how even seven of them could be threatening to a dragon, but she wasn’t going to look this opportunity in the scaly mouth.

“So, does that mean you’d be willing to help us fight the Hunger?”

He stretched his neck regally, holding his head up proudly. “I will do anything I can to stop it.” He bowed his head slightly and blinked his enormous crystal blue reptilian eyes at her. “But I pose no threat to your people,” he promised. The rest of the crew might not believe it, but he had to try.

Lup sat down on the boulder she had grabbed for support and crossed her legs.

“I um…I don’t really have any plans, but if you could lend us a paw when we need a little extra muscle or firepower, it would really help.

“I will definitely be doing what I can to stop the Hunger,” he told her. “In one form, er, way or another.” He sighed wistfully. Maybe someday he’d get to fight beside them in his dragon form. The destruction they could rain with her on his back flying over the Hunger…

He looked at her, his eyes narrowing as he considered. The cautious part of him warned against it, but the thought was far too tempting for this form to deny.

He tucked himself small again, as small as he could manage anyway.

“Little bright one... Lup, would… would you like to try flying with me?”

Lup was on her feet so fast it was almost like she teleported.

“Really!?”

Lup blinked and quickly tried to rein herself back in. It would be better if she didn’t turn into a huge dragon fangirl and scare him off.

“I mean, yes, I would.”

Lup moved closer to Sildar. She touched his nose again and ran her hand down his neck, looking for a way to climb up. She stopped right behind his wings and turned towards him, looking for confirmation.

“Is here good?”

“Climb up however works for you. I’ve never had a rider before,” he admitted. “I’m not really sure what’s best.”

Lup nodded, then suddenly remembered that Barry might be back soon.

“Oh! Uh... it will have to be a short ride, okay? If Barry comes back and I’m not here, he’ll be worried.”

Barry laughed, a rumble that shook his whole body and rattled the trees. “I promise to bring you back before your friend comes looking for you.”

He felt her climbing on. It was a strange sensation, and a stranger thought. “Hmmm.” The sound made him shake again, and he felt her shift on him to accommodate the movement. “I’m also not sure how is best to hold on. Just do your best, I suppose?”

Lup settled herself on his back, and he moved his wings experimentally, not enough to leave the ground, just enough for her to get used to the motion of his muscles beneath her.

“Ready?” he asked.

Wings beat through the air forcefully, pushing them up off the ground. He held there a moment, and when she felt steady on his back, he plunged them over the cliff’s edge. They rocketed towards the treetops. At the last moment, he adjusted his angle, and they skimmed over the top, leaves flowing below them like a multicoloured ocean.

Lup opened her mouth and screamed. She screamed all the way down, morphing seamlessly into a shriek of joy as gravity reversed and Sildar caught the rushing wind with his wings.

It was a bit like riding a horse. If the horse was about forty times the usual size and had nearly three times as many muscles in its back.

She managed to pick out the rhythm and endeavoured to move with it instead of against it. Becoming an extension of him instead of a weight clinging to his back.

She held on to the bones at the base of his wings. It was tricky since they were moving quite violently, but they also beat to a very distinct rhythm she was able to tune in on.

“You good back there?” he called.

She was too breathless to reply to Sildar, so she squeezed his wing joints tightly for a moment and hoped he understood.

Lup pressed her body flat against his back to reduce the wind resistance. She could feel his massive heart beating through his skin, though it was going almost painfully slow in comparison to her tiny elf one, even when flying.

Barry couldn’t contain his smile. With Lup on his back, she couldn’t see the display of teeth, but even the most misunderstanding-of-dragons observer should have been able to guess this wasn’t fierceness, this was pure joy.

He’d never had a rider before, had never guessed what having someone else back there might be like. But Lup seemed to settle in on his back like she was made for it, like flying this way was in her bones.

He pumped his wings hard, gaining altitude until he hit drafts he could glide on for a bit. There, he could soar with his wings out and let her enjoy the sensation of flight without the jolt of his wings working.

“You’d make an amazing dragon,” he called. The words were meant as a happy compliment, but as soon as he’d spoken them, he felt the pull of sadness inside him.

“Thanks!” Lup called back, though she wasn’t sure how to take that remark.

She didn’t have any time to think about it because now they were gliding, and she wanted to sit up and let the wind stream through her hair. She let go of his wings and held her arms out to feel the breeze as much as possible.

He wheeled in a wide right arc then reversed to arc the other way. He followed the invisible drafts of air, playing in them like they were a tidepool and he was merely trailing his fingers rather than propelling tons of ancient lizard with a small elven rider a mile in the air.

Lup pulled her arms back in and leaned over Sildar’s shoulder to get a glimpse of the ground rushing below. They were away from the forest now and out over a mountain range. The peaks passing below them like they were slightly spiky anthills.

To the north, a large winding river opened out into a mile-long waterfall, the sound of crashing water loud enough to be heard even up near the clouds.

He wanted to take her above the clouds, wanted to fly and fly until they’d seen everything this world had to offer, wanted to land and tell her the truth of who he was.

He knew they should turn back so she could return to the ship, but he didn’t know if this chance would ever come again. There was so much more to see and having her here with him made it all so tempting.

It seemed like she was enjoying it as well. He was out of practice at sensing bonds. As a whelping, they’d felt almost tangible with his tiny family, but that had been so long ago. Still, he could swear there was a new bond there now, something unique to today and her meeting him as a dragon.

He pushed up again, searching for another draft, longing to make this last.

Sildar burst up through the cloud cover, and the ground below vanished behind the valley of pure white.

A slight pain started up in Lup’s chest. Even though she was breathing regularly, her lungs were still screaming at her for oxygen.

The pain quickly spread to her head, and Lup swallowed hard to keep what little lunch she had eaten down.

“Sildar! Buddy, I don’t think I can be up this high!”

Lup’s words struck him like a weapon. Shit! He’d been so focused on showing off he’d forgotten the difference in their physiology. Instantly he adjusted to take them down again.

He could feel her slipping before she fell, even through his thick scales and the difference in their size. Shifting again he tried to accommodate and keep her balanced, but it was too late.

She tried to tighten her grip, but the strength had left her body. Black spots danced in front of her eyes, and she lost the rhythm. Sildar moved, probably to adjust course, but Lup went the opposite way, sliding off his back and plunging down through the thin air.

“Lup!” he screamed, but the word disappeared into an anguished roar.

She seemed to plummet like a stone.

He pulled his wings in tight and stretched his neck out, aiming himself like an arrow and shooting past her. Once he was far enough below her, he whirled around and flipped backwards, wings towards the ground. Spreading his wings wide and holding them open, his descent slowed dramatically, and she crashed into his chest. He caught his legs around her and clutched her tightly.

Righting himself, he descended to the ground below, aiming for an open field of high grass. He slowed as much as he could, dragging his wings and back flapping until he was just above the ground. Then he tucked his wings in and rolled again, smashing down on his back with Lup cradled against his chest.

Barry pushed out with one wing and gently rolled Lup onto the ground. She should have been cocooned from the worst of their crash landing. He could only hope the quick descent had taken care of her oxygen deficiency.

He righted himself with a wince. There was definitely a reason landing weren’t made with wings down and feet up. That didn’t matter now, though.

Carefully he touched her with the curved edge of one talon, keeping the sharp end tucked back.

“Lup? Please be okay, Lup…” He lowered his head and nudged her with his snout. “That was so thoughtless of me! I’m so sorry! Please, please be okay!”

Lup felt something warm pressing against her chest. Her arms went up and wrapped around something warm and a little too wide to fit entirely around. The dizziness abated slowly as she took long, deep breaths of ground-level oxygen.

She felt warm breath on her and Lup suddenly realised she was hugging Sildar’s entire snout. She let go and sat up with a groan of pain.

“I… I’m alright. Probably better than I deserve to be...”

Sildar pressed his snout into her tummy then his large scaly lips parted, and he licked the side of… well, most of her.

He let out a breath as the truth of her safety settled in him. He’d licked her before he realised what he was doing, overwhelmed with relief that she was okay.

Lup shivered and patted him on the nose. (Thankfully, this dragon’s breath didn’t live up to its reputation. More like crushed earth than rotten meat, and slightly metallic.) She shakily got to her feet, using Sildar’s outstretched paw when he offered it.

Lup vaguely remembered falling before everything went black. Then there had been a massive crash. “How did you…?”

Before she could finish that thought, Lup’s gaze fell on the enormous dragon-sized ditch that had been gouged into the earth.

“Fuck.”

She looked up at him, searching him for any clear sign of injury.

“Aww, Shiny-scales, you didn’t have to do that. I… I forgot to mention this part, but my crew members and I, if we die in a cycle, we come back for the next one. I’d just be back next year.”

“Well,” he said, feeling a bit embarrassed now that the danger had passed. “Even still, um, it would hardly have looked good for me if you died the first time you talked to me. Especially dying because of my fool-headedness!”

Lup placed both her hands under his jaw, and her eyes met his huge crystal ones. His pupils were slanted like a cat’s, and sharp enough that they seemed to pierce through you.

For a split second, Lup thought she saw something. A soft, lost-puppy look that reminded her of another one she was used to catching out of the corner of her eye when someone thought she wasn’t looking.

“Can you fly?” she asked.

Sildar sat up and stretched his wings, flinching when the right one pulled painfully. He forced it out and then folded it, repeating the motion a few times. It was tender, but he was sure he could fly on it. No more stunts, though. Not today.

“I’m fine,” he told her. “Fine enough to get you back to the cliff, anyway.” His eyes widened as he looked at her, “That is if you’d even risk flying with me again. I… Lup, I truly am sorry. That was thoughtless.” He hung his head down beside her and bumped her slightly. “I was having fun and showing off,” he admitted. “But the last thing I wanted was for you to be hurt, little bright one.

“It’s okay, big guy. If I were a dragon, I’d forget about how squishy mortal’s need to breathe, too.”

Lup pressed her forehead to his and nuzzled him. She even reached up to scratch him behind his pointy horns.

Barry tilted his head gently to press against hers and leaned into the scratch. He shone under her attention, could feel the glow build out from his centre. He was certain of it. There was a new bond there. She knew the dragon, now.

“You’re right though, it’s better you saved me. Thanks, BT-dubs. The others would probably jump to conclusions and try to take it out on you.”

Lup leaned in to kiss Sildar on top of his snout. She stepped back, realising only then how much she had been touching her new dragon pal. Lup blushed and quickly moved back around to climb up on his back.

He blinked in surprise. She’d kissed him! He felt radiant and alive, warm and happy. She had kissed him and she had blushed. Lup blushed! He hadn’t known such a thing was even possible.

“Okay, but only if you’re sure, and if you feel worse, we can stop and walk. I’m sure Barry will understand.”

He waited for her to settle on his back and then spread his wings. “Brace yourself,” he warned. Then he launched himself into the sky, pushing up with his sturdy legs at the same time he flapped wings down hard, trying to ease the strain on his tender right side. It was very sore. Flying was pushing it, and he’d pay the price later, but he’d be damned if he’d let her meeting with a dragon end with a _walk_ back.

Whenever possible he coasted on drafts, wings spread. Even injured as he was, they were back at the cliff where he’d met her far too soon. He landed hard, his attempt to back flap to soften the end of the descent failing. Good thing his flying was almost done. He just had to get back down and shift. He could fall and still manage that.

Neck twisted around to see, he watched her climb off. Barry was quiet as she dismounted and came to stand at his front. He lowered his head to be level with her. “I’m thrilled you wanted to meet me,” he told her. “I very much enjoyed meeting you.”

He glanced towards the trail he’d climbed down earlier in his human form. “I will help when I can,” he promised.

Bumping his head gently against her, he whiffed a little breath against her chest. “Thank you for flying with me, little bright one. I’m happy you survived.”

“I dunno man, I think I should be the one thanking you. You did grab me in mid-air and hit the ground like a tank,” Lup replied with a laugh.

Lup brushed her hand over Sildar’s scales, stalling just a little longer so she could keep petting him. She reached all the way up to his horns where the scale gave way to hard stone. It looked like the deep blue pointed crystals had grown there naturally, except they had the perfect clarity of cut stones.

She returned to petting his forehead, hanging on for a few more moments, until, finally, she hugged his muzzle to her chest and took a few steps back.

Barry relaxed against her touch, barely resisting the urge to preen in front of her. Beyond her touch, just the attention was incredible. It had been hundreds of years since he’d felt anything close to it and still, with Lup, it was different.

“Are you going to be okay to heal on your own? I could bring you something to eat?”

Offering to feed a dragon probably wasn’t the smartest idea Lup had ever had, but she was willing to do her best, and as a bonus, she’d learn what exactly he ate.

His head bowed in appreciation for her offer. “That’s very kind of you. It won’t bother me for long.” Well, it was technically correct. It would only affect his dragon self a little while longer. After that, it was a problem for his human form.

“We should at least agree when to meet next? Maybe in a few weeks? I can make it back here easily enough.”

He looked up at the sky. “I believe there are fifteen days left until the new moon. Would that suffice?”

“If you…” he paused, and sat up tall and proud before he continued, stretching his wings above him majestically despite the pain. “If you would like to come later in the day, perhaps I could take you flying under the stars?” His eyes glimmered with the suggestion and light seemed to pour from his scales. “I promise to remember your need to breathe this time,” he added with a small, non-teeth-baring smile.

Lup had to narrow her eyes a bit to cope with the glow coming off him. It didn’t take a dragon expert to realise that was probably a sign of pleasure. Next time, she would bring along a pair of sunglasses.

“Alright, big guy, it’s a date,” Lup agreed.

She smiled back, her eyes widening a moment later when she realised she had just made a date with a dragon. Her cheeks tinged pink again, her imagination already running wild with the possibilities of where this might lead.

Lup tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked back to the forest trail. She had been gone longer than she expected, but Barry hadn’t come back… or maybe he had and saw her missing and decided to look for her.

“Um, I better go and track down my friend. If he’s not back, he must have gotten lost,” Lup said. She gathered up their packs and waved to Sildar and shouted, “See you later, alligator… or uh, dragon.”

Lup took one last look and started jogging down the trail. She didn’t see any sign of Barry anywhere. There was only the one path they had cut through the underbrush. There was nothing else for it then, she’d just have to hope he could hear her if she screamed loud and long enough.

As soon as Lup was out of sight, Barry dove over the side of the cliff. His wing was really aching now. But he was too excited about his date to spend any thought on something as trivial as pain.

He just had to get to the bottom before her.

And get his clothes. Get dressed.

And explain the injury.

Fuck.

He dove through the trees, landing near where he’d left his clothes. His head whipped around until he located the bundle and knocked it to the ground with his snout. With that done, he summoned his illusionary human form.

“Barry! Hey, Bluejeans! Yell if you’re still alive, or can hear me? Ah, I guess it needs to be both, actually, unless you’re not telling me something!”

Lup kept on like that as she walked down the path, pausing every few meters to give him a chance to respond.

As soon as he was plain old human Barry Bluejeans again the pain nearly crumpled him. The injury that had been spread out over a quarter of a dragon was now localised in his human-sized shoulder and back. He stumbled to his clothes and began pulling them on as quickly as he could while barely moving his right arm. Flying on the injury had been a terrible idea and had made it so much worse.

He could hear her calling him as he fastened his jeans. He pulled on his boots, but there was no time for the rest of it. Plus, there was a massive rip where his dragon tooth had punctured the material. Deciding quickly, he dropped his shirt to the ground and used his foot to scrape it on the ground, covering the white fabric in dirt and leaves. Belatedly he remembered his glasses were in the pocket.

Pulling the shirt up he checked the pocket. Of course, they’d broken. One lens was cracked, and the arm sat at an angle. He moved back up the trail towards her, pushing the broken glasses into place, dirty shirt clutched in his right hand.

“Ba- oh shit!”

It was the glimpse of dark blue that gave him away among the yellows, orange, and browns of autumn, but Lup had only a half second to be relieved before she saw what a state he was in.

She bulldozed her way through a cluster of saplings to get to him and threw her arms around him.

Barry groaned not just with pain but because _of course_ Lup hugged him, and it hurt too much to enjoy. He could count in single digits the number of times it had happened over the years. The _dragon_ , of course, got hugs and head scratches and…

Barry gave a groan of pain and Lup jumped back as fast as if she had been burned.

“Sorry! Sorry!”

She finally noticed how he was holding his arm and the bruising beginning to form around his shoulder.

“What happened?!”

Moving slowly, so she didn’t hurt him again, Lup touched his shoulder and pressed down very gently, looking for broken bones.

“I… uh… fell,” he told her as she helped him settle on the boulder. “Hit the ground on my shoulder, I guess, but, uh, it’s gone all down my arm now. I was going to make a sling with my shirt but…” he gestured to the shirt, indicating he obviously hadn’t managed it. “I don’t think anything is broken, but it hurts like hell.”

Lup glanced around for somewhere for Barry to sit. She saw a substantial moss-covered boulder laying in the bottom of a ditch nearby. Lup cast Levitate on it, and it bobbed weightlessly over to her. She gave it a good shake to get the bugs off it and plopped it back down next to Barry. She took his good arm and helped him sit down on the rock while she ran through her first-aid checklist.

Barry pushed his glasses up when they slid down, and the bent arm fell off. His glasses slipped down his nose and sat at an angle. “Shit.”

“I guess I blacked out? Between climbing down and hearing you, it’s all kind of a blur.”

“Did you hit your head? Should I check for a concussion?”

He looked up at her, reaching up to hold his glasses level with his good arm. “You look… different.” She did, somehow. She was windswept and even while her face was full of concern she seemed excited and energised. Jealousy twisted tight inside him.

“Guess you found your dragon,” he said, trying hard not to sound disappointed.

Lup blinked at him, her hand going to her hair self-consciously. It was an utter mess of tangles.

“Yeah, I did. I have a lot to share, but let’s get you back in one piece first, okay?”

Lup helped him fashion his shirt into a sling like he had suggested. She didn’t let him get up until she had asked him a few questions about where he lived, what his name was, and made sure he could follow her finger with his eyes.

Concussion fears alleviated, they started the arduous hike back to the ship. They were parked in a nearby lake since an empty patch of ground was hard to come by in the thick deciduous forest. Taako was sitting with his feet over the edge of the deck, eating peanuts then transfiguring the shells into small rocks to skip across the surface of the water.

He sat up straight as they approached and yelled, “Captain said he saw you on the back of the dragon! I thought you’d be half digested by now!”

Lup frowned and waited till they were a little closer since she lacked the height advantage that let Taako’s voice carry.

“Koko, round up the others, we need to have a crew meeting! And tell Merle that Barry hurt his shoulder pretty badly!”

Taako nodded and vanished below decks, obeying the unspoken urgency in his twin’s tone. The gangplank lowered as they approached, the bond engine reacting automatically to the presence of two of its crew.

Lup squeezed Barry’s hand and helped him up the steep incline to the deck of the Starblaster.

 

\----

 

Lup told everyone about her meeting with the dragon while Merle blew a spell slot getting his shoulder stable.

“Yer lucky,” Merle told him, “Ya coulda cracked yer head open instead of a bustin’ up yer shoulder.”

Barry nodded and murmured his thanks. Even after Merle’s healing, he’d have to keep the sling for a few days. But at least he wasn’t in agony anymore.

Lup hadn't exactly told the crew everything that had happened with the dragon, and he couldn’t help cataloguing every omittance, filing them away next to the growing pit of jealousy in his stomach.

Davenport was clearly getting more and more riled up the longer Lup spoke. When she finished, the Captain stood up and walked towards her.

“Do you remember the town of Whitehall?” Davenport asked. His voice was tight and clipped, the way he got when he was frustrated with one of them. “Halfling mining town on the edge of the Sandriski mountains? The one that was wiped out by a flight of whites? We only know that because seven children managed to hide in the mines.”

“Actually, it was only five children that survived,” Lucretia pointed out.

Davenport’s jaw clenched before he continued. “Or there’s the Battle of Karshan when two different flights got into a turf war, and over a thousand people died as casualties of their fight.” He shook his head.

“I just don’t think we should trust this dragon,” Davenport concluded. “There are too many unanswered questions. He could be going after the light or working with the Hunger.”

Lup opened her mouth, and he raised his hand to hush her. “I know, you saw him fighting it one time. But are you sure enough to risk everything?”

Merle sat down and offered his standard line when the subject of dragons came up: “Ya just can’t trust dragons!”

Barry stood up, and the other six of them all turned to him. He looked down at his feet. The jealousy was eating at him hard. He knew it was ridiculous, but it made him want the crew to hate the dragon a little. Still. If they could learn to trust the dragon maybe one day, he could stop lying about all of it.

Even if that possibility had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.

“He didn’t hurt Lup.” Barry pointed out. “He could have dropped her and, uh, she wouldn’t be able to tell us what happened until next cycle.” He looked up at Lup. “And I trust Lup’s opinion. If she were meeting anyone else and giving her report, you would all trust her too. It’s just,” he swallowed, coming as close as he ever had to telling them something that cut into him every time it came up. “It’s just because it’s a dragon we’re talking about that you don’t want to believe her.”

Barry could feel the captain’s attention on him. He turned to face the captain as Davenport spoke. “It’s not _‘just a dragon’_ though, is it? This is a dragon that inexplicably can travel between planar systems. I think that warrants a bit more caution.”

Lucretia spoke up next, “The captain is right. Nothing I’ve ever read has talked about a dragon able to cross the planar barriers. What other secrets could it be keeping?”

Barry winced, feeling more hurt than he could explain. “Well, I’ve said my piece. I side with Lup on this. She trusts the dragon, and I trust her.” He looked around at the rest of the crew, and the looks from five of them seemed to pierce right into his heart. Magnus and Taako seemed to feel the least strongly about the situation but Davenport, Merle, and Lucretia… their expressions seemed to say they’d never see his side of things. He nodded once, decisively, trying to keep his face calm. “I’m gonna go find some spare glasses,” he said. He could have magicked his back together but honestly, he couldn’t stay in the room a minute longer.

Lup had just about managed to hold her tongue up till that point but seeing Barry leave was the spark she needed to set off a whole cart of dynamite in her chest.

She slammed both hands on the table, making the whole thing wobble slightly.

“You know what, dudes? You know what? I am **so mother-fucking tired** of sitting around this table and pissing and moaning about the ‘risks’, and the ‘maybe’ and the ‘how can we trust’s.’ Can’t you guys just stop for twenty seconds and consider what we have to gain?”

Barry made it to the door before Lup let loose. He stopped, shocked. He knew that she’d enjoyed her afternoon with Sildar (with him, why was it so hard to feel like they were the same when it came to Lup?) but he’d never expected this level of vehemence over it.

Lup shot a glare around the table, sparing the most withering of her looks for Lucretia and Davenport.

“I’ve got one, right off the top of my head. How does doubling our chances of tracking down the light sound? Because if you’re on the ship, and I’m on the dragon’s back, that’s double our search area. He’s almost as fast as the ship, and unlike the ship, he has eyes. We could have twice the vantage points and two directions we can look instead of one. There’s no telling how many lives, no, fuck, how many _universes,_ we could save if finding the light was just that little bit easier.”

Lup took a deep breath and jabbed a finger at Davenport

“Then there’s his light breath. You _saw_ it cut through the Hunger like it was hot butter, Dav. That could be the razor-thin edge that lets us survive to see another cycle. If you mess up and steer us into one of those black tentacles, Sildar could cut us loose.”

Lup could already sense this tirade was going to make the whole next week tense, but sometimes keeping the peace wasn’t worth it.

“I get it okay? I’m right here with you. I know we’re walking a tightrope with the mother of all horrors waiting in the pit below, but if we’re ever going to make it across, we need to **Stop. Looking. Down.** We can’t let ourselves give in to fear, and we can’t forget that we aren’t running from the Hunger, we’re making strategic retreats. One day we’re going to have to make our stand and, frankly, I’d rather do it with a dragon at our backs than without.”

Lup glanced over at Magnus, sensing what he needed to hear to help pull him over to her side on this.

“How do you think he feels? Sildar lost everything we did. His home, his family, his safety. He’s running same as we are, only he’s doing it all on his own! If we turn our backs, we’re leaving a fellow survivor out in the cold. One who told me he is willing to do whatever it takes to help us.”

Barry wanted to turn around and face Lup, face the whole room. But he couldn’t school his face into a reasonable expression. He felt on the verge of tears listening to her defend the dragon. So many years of secrecy and awfulness and being ashamed to be something they hated… but Lup made him proud. He could be useful. He could make a difference. All this time he’d been struggling to try to justify his place on this team by working in the lab, striving to find something that could turn the tide in their favour. He’d been leashing himself because they’d made him feel that other part of him, the real and ancient part of him, was something to be feared.

What she said about the dragon being on alone was a double-edged sword, though. He was, he’d been on his own for so long. That’s why he’d ended up spending the bulk of his time in human form. He’d been family-less for hundreds of years. But these last years on the Starblaster, he’d been both alone and not alone. He’d had people around him, people who cared about him and who he cared about so, so much. But they hadn’t known the real him.

Finally, Lup turned her full attention to Lucretia.

“Lucy, I’ll admit that there needs to be a cost-benefit breakdown here. All I’m asking is that we consider both sides. Let’s nail down what we have to lose and what we have to gain, and then decide. I think you understand better than anyone the value of writing things down so you can take a step back and think about it…”

Barry tossed a quick glance over his shoulder. Squinting without his glasses, he saw the Lup coloured blur had turned to the blur that was where Lucretia had been sitting. He raised his left hand and wiped his eyes as he continued down the hall.

Heading to the lab, he went to the drawer where he kept spare glasses. There should have been more, but he could never seem to remember to take them off before regen. Still, once he could see, he could fix the other pair easier.

Dropping into his normal seat in the lab, he sat for a long moment with the spare glasses just held in his hand. He’d never expected all these feelings when Lup had asked him to go with her to look for the dragon.

He was proud of what he could do and yet ashamed of keeping his secret. He’d been terrified when she’d fallen and so relieved when she’d been okay.

And, gods, he was jealous of himself! Jealous of how quickly Lup had taken to the dragon. Jealous of every pat and scratch and hug and shared moment she’d had with the dragon.

He really needed to stop thinking of himself as ‘the dragon’ before he made the jealousy even worse.

But really? Lup had a date with the dragon?!

 

\---

 

The meeting broke up soon after Barry left. Davenport knew when it was time to let everyone take a step back and cool their heads, often literally in Lup’s case.

She’d gotten what she wanted though, a chance to make her case. The battle was not over, not by a long shot.

After stopping by her room, having a quick shower, and fixing her hair, Lup headed for the lab to try to find some note paper. She wanted to get her thoughts down while she was still fired up about it.

Lup stormed into the lab and went over to her desk. She rifled around until she found a pad of scratch paper and a pen without a cap. She scribbled a bit at the top to make sure it still worked then turned to leave.

She almost made it out of the door before she noticed Barry. He was sitting in his usual spot, but he had his head resting on the bench cradled in his good arm.

“Hey, BlueJay. I was looking for you!” Lup jumped up on the counter.

“I need to sketch out my arguments for the next meeting about the dragon, do you want to help?”

Then, Lup remembered that Barry had fallen off the cliff today and added, “Uh or maybe you should be resting. You’re looking a little pale there, babe. You feeling okay?”

Barry sat up and looked at Lup. He felt absolutely clobbered, but his injury wasn’t the cause. He’d been sitting here for a while, and all he’d done was feel worse about things, spinning in circles of ‘he should tell them’ and ‘he could never tell them.’

“I want to help,” he told her. “I… I think this is important.”

His mouth went tight for a moment as he considered his words. “I liked what you said, by the way. You’re right. They… they’re acting like nervous old women exchanging scary stories. And… I get it. Dragons are… Dragons can be…” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “I really think that if this were anything else, they’d listen to you.”

His chest felt tight. This whole situation was making him miserable. He’d hated keeping this secret from them, but now it felt so much worse. It was a good thing he hadn’t eaten today.

“The Captain’s acting like… like the dragon, uh, is trying to pull a con on him or something. If I... Uh, I mean… It doesn’t make sense. Why bother trying to fool you? What would be the point?”

“See that’s exactly what I’m saying!” Lup enthused. “If he wanted to eat us nothing is stopping him. He knows where we live already. Hard not to notice the only other moving thing when we land on deserted planes, even if it wasn’t bright silver.”

She huffed in annoyance and shook her head, turning back to her notes.

He wanted to tell Lup so badly. She’d understand, wouldn’t she?

But then it wasn’t fair to expect her to keep that secret either. And then they were right back to at least half the crew not trusting him. And that was just if they knew he was a dragon. Add in decades of lying about it?

He sighed again and dropped his good arm into his lap. He was trying not to feel defeated but listening to Davenport had brought up a lot of unpleasant memories.

“Anyway, what are your ideas?”

“Well, I have most of my arguments. But it would help if I could bounce ideas off you. Lucy was going on about how the dragon can go between planar systems. It could be dangerous, or it could help us understand why we can only pass through at the same time every year.”

Lup chewed on the base of her pen, adding a new row of teeth marks to it.

“Maybe the Hunger is what makes the barrier permeable? Maybe he just flies up to it and slips through? Only he’d have to make it past the stratosphere, and dragons shouldn’t be able to do that?”

“Um, well, maybe… maybe he does something um… similar? If uh… Well, I guess different kinds of dragons have different um… magic? Or specialities?”

Barry picked at the edge of the sling Merle had given him, nervously pulling at a loose thread on the seam. “It’s uh, definitely interesting.” He paused, considering the whole situation and trying to figure out how to proceed. “I don’t know any, um, other way to get between planar systems so, I guess he, uh, must do what we do.”

Shit. Now he was a liar _and_ a bad scientist. This was just miserable.

“Okay,” he said, trying to focus on the arguments the crew would offer. “Davenport and Lucretia will argue that, uh, the dragon just wants to eat people, um, that he’s after the light, and that he’s working with the Hunger? Oh, and I guess that he’s uh, that he’s … trying to sway you to his side for some reason? I’m not clear on what they think the point is there. Trying to swindle you out of your retirement savings?”

Barry made the joke because it was painfully clear to him exactly what the dragon hoped to accomplish. It’s the same thing he’d hoped for over the decades: for Lup to like him back.

Of course, the dragon managed it in a single day.

Lup sucked on her pen, her own thoughts mirroring Barry’s, though she had just enough tact not to say, ‘I think he might want to fuck me?’ out loud.

“It’d help if we knew what he wants. With dragons, aspiration and nature are usually closely linked. If we suss out the first out, then we can guess at the other.”

Lup scribed down that thought, then moved on to the next.

“It can’t be to build a horde of gold and shit, because he’d have died rather than give up his possessions to the Hunger. To even want to traverse out of the material plane, he’d have to know he could rely on filling his needs no matter what he found on the other side.”

Lup furrowed her brows. Her pen seemed to move on its own, as she mulled it over. Only instead of more notes, she shifted into drawing a rough sketch of Sildar’s head, doing her best going from memory.

“So, an intangible sense of greater purpose? The metallic classes of dragons are like that. Only… I can’t see a gold or a bronze taking the Hunger in stride like Sildar does. They’d lose their beans over the injustice of it all.”

She did his horns, doing her best to keep the lines straight for his angular horns.

Barry was listening intently, but he was also internally panicking, trying to figure out what he should admit about the dragon’s nature.

About _his_ nature.

As far as he knew, even before the Hunger ate their plane, no one really knew much about crystal dragons. Five hundred years after it happened, the Battle of Karshan was a skirmish between Whites and Reds as far as history books were concerned. No one remembered the Crystals who’d tried to defend…

Although, Barry realised, the only ones who remembered anything about it now were living on this ship.

“He’s so gorgeous. I’ve never read anything about his kind of colouring before, or shape. He looks like someone transmuted the inside of a geode into dragon shape. I never thought about it before, but if there are dragons for precious metals, why not gemstones?”

Lup’s voice changed as she started describing the dragon and he glanced over at her. His eyes caught on the sketch she was making. It was surreal. She’d called him gorgeous. His dragon form anyway. And her drawing stunned him. Conflicting emotions pulled at him - pride and jealousy. The dragon was imposing and impressive, but the human was a forgettable mess.

He’d seen his dragon-self reflected in lakes as he flew but this? He couldn’t tear his gaze away. He’d never really seen what he looked like up close, never even thought to question it. Through the filter of Lup’s recollection, he seemed magnificent.

“When you were learning draconic, did you read anything about gem dragons?”

He opened his mouth to comment just as she asked him about draconic and his jaw snapped back shut. Shit, he’d forgotten about that.

“Draconic… uh. I hadn’t realised you knew that’s what I…” He could feel his face going scarlet. The cavalier attitude he’d managed while a dragon was gone and all he could think about were the many, many times he’d muttered something when Lup had driven him to complete distraction. Which happened constantly.

He stammered, trying to focus on her actual question. “Uh, gem dragons are… well, people, um, people don’t know much about them. They’re really, uh, rare. I think, um, I think I remember hearing that, uh, they get confused for other flights a lot. So maybe that’s why… uh… so little is known.”

He shifted uncomfortably and continued. “I, uh, I mean it makes sense, anyway. I, um, I never really read anything about them. He’d… uh, I bet he’d probably tell you.”

“I should have asked… it just felt kind of weird, asking what kind of dragon he is…” Lup mused as she outlined a wing.

She lapsed into silence periodically as the drawing took up more and more of her attention.

“I didn’t tell the others… but I already arranged for another meeting. I’ll ask him then. I guess we’ll only have his word for it… but if you’ve heard of them, then we know for sure they exist? And he sure-as-sugar looks like a gem dragon. Not like he could have painted himself another colour…”

Lup went quiet again as she finished the one wing and moved on to the other.

“He kinda told me the same thing - about being rare? - when he talked about his family passing away even before the Hunger.”

Lup sighed and pursed her lips.

“That’s got to really suck… I mean if I didn’t have Taako…”

Lup shook her head. She didn’t want to presume how Sildar felt.

“But, if there were more good dragons around it would really help boost their positive brand recognition.”

Lup cracked a grin, but she didn’t really feel it.

She went back to her drawing, outlining Sildar’s belly and then his crystal-tipped tail. Sometimes it was like that when talking to Barry. They were more than comfortable enough with one another to just exist in the same room without needing to fill the space.

Barry watched her sketch and listened to her comments and her silences. It calmed him just being around her. A smile ghosted over his face, there and gone. It calmed him, and it unsettled him. He was in deep water with her, and he couldn’t see the bottom.

She’d understand why he’d kept his secret. He knew she would. The words were right there, screaming across his head. _’Lup, I’m Sildar. I’m a crystal dragon. Oh, and while I’m making declarations, I’ve been in love with you for a few decades now.’_

But it just wasn’t fair to dump that on her when the rest of the crew couldn’t know. Davenport would never trust him again, probably wouldn’t even want him on the ship. Merle would probably want every healing spell he’d blown on him returned somehow and with interest. Lucretia would give him that look that said she didn’t agree with his choices and then that silence that was terrifying because he could see her mind working and not begin to guess what the ramifications would be.

Magnus? Taako? He wasn’t sure.

But losing all those bonds? It was too painful to contemplate. And what about the ship? The bond engine? Would finding out about him break the delicate balance that kept it going, kept the ship powered, and kept them outrunning the Hunger?

And Lup. She’d understand, but it would change so much. What if it broke the friendship they had? He wasn’t sure he could handle that. Just considering it made it hard to breathe.

So he held his tongue, and the silence continued.

For several minutes, the only sound was her pen scratching against the paper.

“Thanks for coming with me today, Bt-dubs. We should do that more often. Uh… go on nature hikes I mean, not look for dragons.”

“Sure, Lup, I’d like that… I, uh, I like hanging out with you,” he admitted.

Lup left off her drawing for a moment. With all the excitement, she’d forgotten about what Barry had been doing while she was flying on dragon-back.

“We should stick together next time, though. You could have died out there if I hadn’t been able to find you, or if you hit your head a little harder.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he agreed. “But I, uh, I don’t think you’d have met the dragon if I’d stuck around.” _‘In fact, I can guarantee it,’_ he thought.

She leaned in and put her hand on the top of Barry’s head, ruffling his hair as she double checked for bumps or cuts on his scalp.

“Hmmm, you’re sure you hit your head, right? Enough to blackout?”

“I’m not sure what I hit really,” he answered nervously. Between the fake story and her hand on his head, his thoughts were a little cloudy. “It’s kind of a blur. Uh, if I fell on my back, uh, maybe it, um, just knocked the wind out of me.” He shrugged and then regretted the movement, gritting his teeth in pain.

He changed the subject. “So, another meeting with the dragon, huh? That’s uh, that’s good. You can ask questions and, uh, talk more, I guess. Are you, um, are you going to tell the captain?”

“No. I’m just going to say I’m really sorry after,” Lup admitted. “Dav’s very forgiving if you make the right face.”

“Maybe…” he drifted to silence, trying to piece his thoughts into sentences that wouldn’t be too suspect. He liked that about Lup, she let him have time to gather his thoughts. And even when she got frustrated with him for it, she never made him feel bad about it.

“Maybe that’s what he’s getting out of it,” he suggested. “If he’s uh, alone, like you said? Maybe he’d like to have people again.”

The suggestion sounded ridiculous in those words even if he did have the inside track to know it was true. He hadn’t yet realised it himself earlier. All he’d thought of was satisfying Lup. But being a dragon around her? Having someone to look out for? The feeling of that bond while he could appreciate it most? It was like he’d been starving and hadn’t noticed. All these years alone, no one ever knowing him in his true form and in one day he felt practically reborn.

“Being on the ship with everyone, knowing we all have each other’s backs even when there are disagreements or, uh… I just, um, not having that is rough… Uh, I would imagine.”

Lup went back to her drawing as she listened to Barry. Nodding along as he got to the end.

“Agreed, I’m glad you can see it too.”

She finished up her drawing, adding in the details and shading in a few places to give the sketch a little depth.  As an afterthought, she added in a small depiction of an elf perched between the crystal dragon’s outstretched wings.

“Maybe once the others relent, we can ask if he wants to move in? There’s enough room in the hold, right? We just need to throw out some of the food and other useless shit.”

Lup signed the drawing at the bottom, forming the top half of the letter P into a heart. She tore the page she had been working on off the notepad.

She pulled a free pin from the chalkboard above Barry’s desk and used it to fix the drawing in place.

“Why don’t you keep this, BJ? Consolation for not getting to see him yourself.”

Lup hopped down off the desk. “I’m going to go grab a nap. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.”

Lup turned and left, holding the rest of the notepad pressed against her chest.


End file.
